AMD: 20nm and 14nm advantages to be less noticeable

AMD CEO Rory Read spoke about next-generation process technologies during the IT Supply Chain Conference last week. One of the things he said is that AMD will need to transit to new process technologies more wisely than before, as the advantages brought by smaller process technology will start to wane. Full details at X-bit Labs.

"Now, let's talk about 20nm and 14nm. I think that we really flying hard in the path of subatomic environments. The price advantages as we move down nodes are starting to wane. The ability to [quickly improve] yields and ramp up our products (which have fixed amount of time) is under exceptional pressure. It costs huge amounts of money. I think we have to be strategic and think about how quickly we go down the node," said Rory Read, chief executive officer of AMD, during IT Supply Chain conference organized by Raymond James.

...

Rory Read believes that the market of semiconductors will need to change drastically from what it is today. Even though AMD will inevitably adopt both 20nm and 14nm fabrication processes in the coming years, it will change its adoption approach and expects companies like Globalfoundries to change their pricing models so to make transitions to thinner processes viable for fabless designer of chips.
"Just go look at the cost of wafers as you move down those technologies, they are not going down, they are going up! If the yield does not go up, how do you get your return? You have to charge bigger prices. We will get there, we will move down [but ultimately there got to be different pricing model]," said the chief executive officer of AMD.